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  1. #11
    Long Hauler D2Reid's Avatar
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    Steve thanks for the excellent write up. Over the years we have been "stuck" in different situations, no water, no power, no fuel, no food. As a result I carry about 3 days of everything. Having played the portable generator game too many times I ponied up for an internal Onan generator. But even with these preparations we would have been hard pressed to be comfortable in the current TX conditions.

    What I find truly amazing about the whole thing is how communities come together to overcome these adversities.
    Dallas
    2017 Momentum 376TH, 2019 Ford F450, Dual Rear Wheel, 4x4, diesel.
    2015 Harley-Davidson Street, XG750

  2. #12
    Site Sponsor Steven@147's Avatar
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    Hello back again. Our second power outage only lasted 20 minutes so we have been back on power.
    Addressing a couple replies. Our inverter quietized generator is very quiet but in this case generators all over the RV park were running, all were pretty quiet, nobody minded. Some RVers were running extension cords from their generators over to another site to help others. Some donated 6 amp battery chargers on short extension cords to charge other campers RV batteries.

    On our item power consumption, there is an advertised watts/amps draw then there is reality. In our case i would watch the EMS power monitor L1, L2 amps, the wife would turn something on and I would record the increase on the monitor. Like our tank heaters, watching the monitor, every time we would switch on the fresh water tank heater the monitor display increased 1 amp steady more usage, we noted that and on which leg (L1.L2) it was on. So what I listed was our real world draw. For other items we read the tag for watts / 120 for amps and that was our initial estimate until we could verify by actual usage displayed on the EMS power monitor. Some items will very on their draw like the converter, it could be as low as 6 amps or as high as 9. You have to account for that.

    When you are in these kinds of conditions having a game plan can help you get through it, suffer through it, or not. Our plan included taking inventory every morning of the utilities we had left so that we could adjust our usage. Power / gen gasoline, water, propane and Food. Example our fresh water holding tank is @ 80 gallons, 1/3=27, 2/3=74 gallons estimate. Then added up our bottled water that was left. We started out with 2/3 in the fresh tank, after 4 days we are down to 1/3 on the monitor lights. We screwed up, we should have filled the fresh water holding tank while we had the chance. Then with uncontaminated water, this comes into play now 4 days later. We still have several bottled waters left. We have been only washing, spunging off in the bathroom sinks instead of showers. Haven't had a shower in 6 days. OMG. Some used to flush the toilet. We cut back on flush water but not so much to cause problems with the black tank. We have very little waist water in the grey tanks.

    Propane - We now have a full 30# tank and by the frost line on the other tank its about 1/4. Now that we have power we are using the fireplace and our floor heater to heat the RV, they can keep the inside temp 61-68 depending on the outside temp and how much sun we get through the windows. Projection - we will eventually have to use some propane to boil water, we have to account for the expected additional propane usage otherwise we will run short of propane again. Propane is still in short supply. We don't want to waste what we have. The campground is out of propane.

    Your utility reserves will change over the course of days. Right now our fresh water has to be monitored closely. Some people here in the campground are using water out of the swimming pool as water to flush their toilets. There is almost a statewide boil water notice. There are extreme lines of people at distribution sites for water. The National Guard bringing in trucks of bottled water. Two distributions sites in Galveston. In our case the fresh water taps at the campground has residual water flowing. We filled 2 big pans, set them inside the RV next to a window, we have sun today so the sun coming in the window is radiant heating the water and the pan, this way it will not take near as much propane to heat the water to boiling. We'll let it cool then use empty water bottles we saved to rebottle it, labeling it as such. That will give us an additional 7-8 bottles of water. We'll keep doing this as long as we can.

    Next is when we actually get water pressure back. No projection of when that might be, but still a boiled water notice. But we have to be careful not to contaminate what clean water we have left in the fresh water holding tank with contaminated water we might get later from the campground tap. Our plan is keep the RV isolated from possibly contaminated tap water as long as possible. We will fill up as many empty bottles we have with what's left in the fresh holding tank and what we can boil and cool then rebottle. When we do switch over to campground tap we will only use it for washing, showers, flushing and such. We also have a plan to sanitize our water lines from contaminated water. We use 5 gallon buckets with snap lids to hold smoker grill pellets still in their plastic bags. We will use one of those buckets to mix up some bleach water, then use the winterize settings on the nautilus panel to suck the bleach water through and sanitize the lines before ever drinking or cooking with it.

    I hope you don't think we are being preachy by posting our trials and tribulations. If it can help someone great, maybe you can get some comic relief from it! lol..... You got to keep a good perspective through something like this!
    Last edited by Steven@147; 02-19-2021 at 11:03 AM.
    Steve & Tami Cass - Escapee's, FMCA Members, Texas Fulltimers Since July 2020
    2019 Solitude 3350RL S-Class, 2018 Ram 3500 DRW, Laramie Longhorn, B&W Companion, Texas Class A Non-CDL Drivers License
    Sharing the Fulltime Lifestyle - www.youtube.com/@tsrvadventures3219/videos, Nonprofit Channel

  3. #13
    Seasoned Camper Cannon07's Avatar
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    Thanks for sharing. This is useful info to help us better prepare for future events we might encounter.
    2021 351MR
    2017 Jayco 377rlbh (sold)

  4. #14
    Seasoned Camper Sportsdad60's Avatar
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    Thanks for post your experience!
    If you don't mind I'll add our lessons learned from this storm here.

    We had to "make do" with pulling only 15 amps. Our Yamaha I2000 was enough to power the electric fan on the furnace, 3 tank heaters and a couple of light however it did keep generator it in economy mode which means it only burned 1 gallon of fuel every 9 hours at 50% power. It also powered our min use of lights. We kept the hot water on propane.

    We started "conserving" on Sat, 2 days before the storm as that was the first winter storm that came through the corpus area. We burned approx 1/4 tank of a 30 lb each day when running heat at 60 deg. Lesson learned, lower the inside temp to 55 deg to conserve more efficiently.
    We had one full 30 lb tank, one 3/4 full 30 lb and 1 full 20 lbs on Saturday. By Wed morning, the day we "Bugged out", we gave the full 20 lb to a neighbor and took our other 2x30 lbs tanks with us north to Lubbock (friends house) without our RV. Our take away is that we will carry another spare 30 lb tank empty, on our next wintering adventure and then fill up all 4 upon arrival.

    LL: we plan to get another I-2000 generator (Love their compact size and weight) and parallel it into our existing gen. That should give us about 29 amps of power and ability to run elec water heater.

    LL: Add a 5 gallon gas can instead of 2.5 gallon so less trips to the gas stations. I can go 45 hours on 1 generator and 5 gallons of gas to power the furnace fan and tank heaters. (or rough 23 hours using 2 gens in parallel)

    So as of Friday, reports from our neighbors at Pioneer said the water, elec, sewage, garbage and propane availability has been restored at Pioneer RV park (450 unit complex) We left on Wed when none of that was available and since we had a full tank of diesel, bugged out and took 2 off the dependency of the grid down there since we had the ability.

    A lessoned learned for everyone else, unlike us, many people did not bring cold weather clothes. The stores ran out of these items first on Sunday before the really big ice storm and 7 deg weather hit. We always bring 4 seasons of clothing and coats when we travel abroad.

    We also travel abroad with a 30 day supply of freeze dried MRE's from Mountain House in two buckets. Now, these required water and a heat source, but if one or both of those become available, you dont have to worry about a run on the grocery stores starving you out.

    We also travel with rifles, pistols and enough ammunition to make it a few weeks in a SHTF scenario, which this was NOT thankfully. Wife and I are both avid sporting shooters and hunters.
    Last edited by Sportsdad60; 02-20-2021 at 05:50 AM.
    2021 310GK-R - MorRyde suspension and pin box. Sumo Springs. Solar, 7k axles.
    2019 Lance 1062 Truck Camper, 2 slides.
    2021 F350 Lariat DRW 4x4 6.7 diesel, 10 speed auto, 3.55 diff-48 gallon fuel capacity
    2000 F350 XLT HD SRW 2WD 7.3L diesel, 6-speed manual trans, 3.73 diff - Firestone Airbags-Bilstein Shocks. 82 gallon fuel capacity

  5. #15
    Site Sponsor Steven@147's Avatar
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    [QUOTE=Sportsdad60;349268]Thanks for post your experience!
    If you don't mind I'll add our lessons learned from this storm here.

    snip

    Don't mind at all gives people a thread source for the lessons we had to learn as we went. Good Info. Buckets! They come in real handy. Gas cans, I had a 5 gl diesel can I carry for extra diesel for the truck as well as a 2 gl gas can for the genny. I used both cans for gas. Some that couldn't get out we generator owners shared to keep them running. It wont harm, I'll empty it real good and aerate then fill with diesel.

    We learned, almost too late on propane to over conserve, you can always ease up on your conservation. Many places had propane but could not pump it with no power.
    Steve & Tami Cass - Escapee's, FMCA Members, Texas Fulltimers Since July 2020
    2019 Solitude 3350RL S-Class, 2018 Ram 3500 DRW, Laramie Longhorn, B&W Companion, Texas Class A Non-CDL Drivers License
    Sharing the Fulltime Lifestyle - www.youtube.com/@tsrvadventures3219/videos, Nonprofit Channel

  6. #16
    Site Sponsor Steven@147's Avatar
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    One thing I should also mention, the campground told us DO NOT dump your holding tanks, they shut down the sewer system, it needs water to work properly and water was shut off. Plan for that, dump your tanks before a storm hits so you will have capacity for your black tank, but remember in cold weather a holding tank without much water will freeze faster than a tank with more in it.
    Some RVers here have frozen holding tanks, some do not have tank heaters or have no or not enough heating around the tanks. It may take a few days of warm weather to thaw out their tanks or where ever the blockage is.

    Also if you do not have a power monitor of some kind, keep an eye on your converter, make sure it is working. You can also look at your leveling system control panel for batt charge. If its 13V or above the converter is working. One person here lost their converter power and didn't know it, ran their battery flat so the furnace quit. We got it fixed but their battery was dead, they had to find another battery.

    Take what we have told you of our struggles in cold weather, translate them to a warm weather storm, some of the same issues will apply. Maybe not so much with propane and heat, but you still need to cook, hot water, boil water and so forth. Potable water becomes a necessity. Generators and gasoline will be in short supply. And think about your special needs, one person here was on an oxygen generator, without power it didn't work, the camp ground and RVers kept him running on a generator and kept checking on him.

    Y'all have a great day, We have all our utilities back. We still have to boil water but, we're back!
    Last edited by Steven@147; 02-20-2021 at 12:44 PM.
    Steve & Tami Cass - Escapee's, FMCA Members, Texas Fulltimers Since July 2020
    2019 Solitude 3350RL S-Class, 2018 Ram 3500 DRW, Laramie Longhorn, B&W Companion, Texas Class A Non-CDL Drivers License
    Sharing the Fulltime Lifestyle - www.youtube.com/@tsrvadventures3219/videos, Nonprofit Channel

  7. #17
    Seasoned Camper
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    Great posts by all. There's a lot of good lessons and suggestions here. We fared much better than so many because we never lost power - but I was ready to ration propane and water like you did. We have an onboard 5500w onan generator, had filled fresh tank, and had a total of four 30 lb propane tanks - and I was still nervous! Really good to hear how everyone came together in your park. In our park we have several that busted water lines and have damages to deal with afterward. No fun. Like others, we are on boiled water notice for a few days, but our water supply is back up to nominal already. We got out and about yesterday to scavenge for essential for folks we know in brick and sticks homes that had no power, water or way to heat and were running low on perishables for their little ones. We are blessed to have the resources (especially truck with 100 gal fuel capacity and 4 WD). I wish we could have helped more folks. This whole episode was no Bueno.
    Home is where you park it!
    2021 Solitude 380FL
    2014 Silverado 3500HD LTZ DRW 6.6L Duramax Allison 6 Speed
    RVing since 1996; Full Time since 2018

  8. #18
    Setting Up Camp
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    Good to hear you made it thru. One thing that may have helped is closing your slides if possible. Not sure of your layout and what can be accessed if they are in. What this does is reduces the square footage that needs to be heated by bringing in your walls and giving the wind less area to buffet around. This will work on some floor plans but not on others. We had to use this approach during an ice storm on our way home from Florida one year. We had to spend an extra night in Ohio.

  9. #19
    Site Sponsor Steven@147's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brad Smith View Post
    Good to hear you made it thru. One thing that may have helped is closing your slides if possible. Not sure of your layout and what can be accessed if they are in. What this does is reduces the square footage that needs to be heated by bringing in your walls and giving the wind less area to buffet around. This will work on some floor plans but not on others. We had to use this approach during an ice storm on our way home from Florida one year. We had to spend an extra night in Ohio.
    We contemplated bringing in one slide. With our floor plan the right or curb side slide, we could have brought in to help reduce or try to better seal against the wind and cold. But then we couldn't have used the recliners and seat warmers, they came in real handy. The fireplace would not have been as effective with this slide in either. We would have been able to still get to the fridge and the couch with the right slide in. The right/ curb slide was facing the north wind.

    The left street side slide we could not bring in as it would have blocked the main heat register at the hutch/pantry. See even with the cold, we had howling winds sometimes gusting to 40mph, The lip slide seals just can't deal with that kind of wind. We did think about it, but decided not to based on our floorplan. But its a good idea to contemplate.
    Steve & Tami Cass - Escapee's, FMCA Members, Texas Fulltimers Since July 2020
    2019 Solitude 3350RL S-Class, 2018 Ram 3500 DRW, Laramie Longhorn, B&W Companion, Texas Class A Non-CDL Drivers License
    Sharing the Fulltime Lifestyle - www.youtube.com/@tsrvadventures3219/videos, Nonprofit Channel

  10. #20
    Seasoned Camper Sportsdad60's Avatar
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    life is back to normal here in Port A.
    Interesting effect the weather had on our local golf course, they pull the flags at night and lay them down, well that Monday temp drop and wind froze the greens but the part covered by the flag survived green! They will all come back eventually but I thought it was an interesting phenomenon , all the holes were like this. The flag pin is tapered, the thicker part protected the grass along with the flag. All were pointing south (wind from the north)
    (I set the flag down next to survivor green for the photo)

    2021 310GK-R - MorRyde suspension and pin box. Sumo Springs. Solar, 7k axles.
    2019 Lance 1062 Truck Camper, 2 slides.
    2021 F350 Lariat DRW 4x4 6.7 diesel, 10 speed auto, 3.55 diff-48 gallon fuel capacity
    2000 F350 XLT HD SRW 2WD 7.3L diesel, 6-speed manual trans, 3.73 diff - Firestone Airbags-Bilstein Shocks. 82 gallon fuel capacity

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